FROM MOLETOWN TO BATVILLE 399 



" This Little Brown Bat that Rod has brought seems 

 to have been living alone in the root cellar, though I 

 dare say if we looked we should find others. You saw 

 them last summer flapping about when we were looking 

 for Wliip-poor-wills." 



"The Bats we saw seemed much bigger than this," 

 said Nat. " Aren't there any larger ones here that we 

 might have seen ? " 



" Yes, we have the Brown Bat, who is the same color 

 as this little brother, but spreads his wings two inches 

 further, and the beautiful Red Bat with his shaded 

 ' golden-red ' coat frosted with white. This Red Bat is 

 one of the earliest to come out at night, and may some- 

 times be seen even in cloudy days, and it is more com- 

 mon here than the Little Brown Bat, and is not much 

 larger. It is a most devoted parent, and mothers have 

 been known to follow their children, which are usually 

 twins, to the rooms of houses where they were made 

 prisoners. Still I am quite sure that our visitor, this 

 Little Brown Bat, is the species that has flapped in 

 our very faces this summer, for anything on the wing 

 seems much larger than when held in the hand. 



" There is a very beautiful species called the Hoary 

 Bat, with frosty gray fur, that I have found in the 

 far hickory woods, and though it ranges from the Sas- 

 katchewan country down through the highlands as far 

 as Mexico, very few people except the Wise Men know 

 it for a Bat — and why ? Because in the first place it 

 does not begin to fly until quite dark, and then its 

 flight being both rapid and direct and its wings long 

 and pointed, they may mistake it for an owl." 



"Can it hoot like an Owl?" said Nat. "The Bats 



